Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Between our house and our swimming/internet haven there is a clinic which prominently advertises, in English, "Abortion 200 Rupees ". 200 rupess = $4-5.00

What is your reaction to that? And what do you think it says about this culture?

My first take was, "My. Well, at least women have access to cheap abortions and the opportunity to control their own fertility. And isn't it a good thing that abortion is accepted enough to be advertised to boldly, out there in the public space and discourse?" Chris pointed out that instead of my pro-woman pollyanna take, the reality may be something closer to "You can terminate your pregnancy if it is not the desired gender (male), if you have enough disposable income and time away from work/family." (200 rupees is a lot of momeny for many people here, remember.)

I can't seperate abortion from the population crisis happening here, or from issues of women's empowerment. But is "choice" really an appropriate word to use in this context?

I'd love to hear from you all out in blog-land on this one - questions and comments, whatever you have to say...

2 comments:

I often have trouble separating my admittedly ethnocentric (but *correct*, right?!) ideas about sex discriminating population control, but I was struck in an unusual way by this post. Being presented with the following choices, for example,

(1) having a child whose grandparents will pray for HER demise because of the financial burden SHE presents (would that happen if she were a he?)

OR (2) a $5 abortion

is a world so shockingly different from my own that I feel ill-equipped to do anything but recognize my bewilderment at a choice like that.

Smells Like WHAT?

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